
.A* 



/&? 



lINIKlillDIIlllllR 
020 312 



Hollinger Corp. 

dH8.5 



The Relation between the Superintendent 
and the School Committee 



By A. W. Anthony 



Reprinted from Maine School Report 1908 



WATERVILLE 

SENTINEL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1909 



,<> 



,«> 



THE RELATION BETWEEN THE SUPERINTENDENT 
AND THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 



A. W. Anthony — Member ofLewiston School Committee. 

The school committee is the legislative body of the public 
school system. It lays plans. The superintendent is the execu- 
tive officer of the school committee. He either executes the 
plans in person, or sees that they are executed by others. The 
functions of the two are widely distinct, yet the relation between 
the two is most intimate and vital. Each is indispensable to the 
other. Theoretically the school committee has no direct contact 
with the schools; it has no means of performing its own 
decrees ; for the school committee is not a continuing body. 
There is no school committee when the committee is not in ses- 
sion. There are individuals who have been elected to serve on 
a school committee; they are called in common speech "mem- 
bers" of the school committee, or of the school board ; but such 
election and membership gives them no power over the schools 
or school interests any more than any private citizen enjoys, 
save only when the committee is in session. As soon as the 
committee adjourns the members of it are all private citizens 
like any other private citizens. 

I am a member of the school committee of Lewiston, but what 
authority or power have I over any teacher, or any pupil, or any 
janitor, or any building belonging to Lewiston's public schools? 
None whatever, as an individual. The committee, however, has 
complete authority and power, within the terms of the law, 
whenever it is in session, and observes the rules of its organiza- 
tion and existence. I may corfibine in the committee with the 
other members and have my share of influence ; but when I am 
alone, out of the meeting, away from the others, I have no more 
power or authority than any other citizen. I have been elected 



SJ 

fc 



as a committeeman and nothing else, and the committeeman has 
no power. It is only the committee which has power. Mark 
this, and do not forget the distinction. 

If you will read the statutes of the State, you will find many 
things said about the committee, many powers defined, many 
duties and prerogatives described; but you will not find that 
the law clothes the single member, as president, chairman, secre- 
tary, or private, with any power, any duty, or any prerogative 
whatever. The committeeman has no legislative functions, save 
only when he is joined with his associates in duly assembled 
meeting, and he has no executive functions, save only as they 
may be prescribed by direct vote for a specific task and for a 
limited time ; for he may be made a special committee, either by 
himself or with others, for the performance of some special 
piece of work, and he may have assigned him in the discharge 
of these clearly prescribed duties, some discretionary power; 
but the limits of discretion are always fixed, even if they are not 
precisely stated. By law he can have no power and no right 
to exercise his discretion, save as the power and right are con- 
ferred upon him for a specific task and for a limited period by 
the committee. The whole committee is the source of authority 
and power, and it has no right to divest itself of its authority 
and power, even to some of its own members. It can delegate 
to its members and even to others the task of executing its 
wishes, but the committee is the legislative body and it cannot 
step down and out; its responsibilities are not scattered; they 
cannot be dissipated, and they cannot be transferred. 

One reason why a composite body,, like a board, or a commit- 
tee, has existence only when it is in session becomes apparent, 
if we recall the fact that a committee is not a mere collection of 
individuals, but a new social organism, in which each individual, 
becoming lost himself, acts upon and influences every other indi- 
vidual, some more and some less, but each according to the force 
of his own personality. An illustration from physics will aid in 
making plain what I mean. Two forces, moving from different 
directions and meeting at any angle, other than one of 180 
degrees, — when they will be in direct opposition and will nullify 
each other, if equal, — will not continue as distinct forces, each 
in its own original direction, but will combine to form a new 



force, moving in a new direction between the two directions 
previously pursued. Neither survives alone; both are repre- 
sented in the new resultant force; each contributes its full 
energy to the new combination. 

So with a committee, or any composite body, composed of 
two or more. Every man on it should give his thought and 
judgment, his plans and ideals, be they few or many, weak or 
strong, high or low, to the general decision, and no one member 
of the committee should expect his view to prevail to the exclu- 
sion of the views of the other members of the committee. If 
one man, be he president, chairman, secretary, or other member, 
had either the disposition or the power to impose his view upon 
the whole committee, then the committee might just as well 
cease to be, for that man would be the committee. When 
Smith, Jones and Brown unite in a committee, then the deeds 
of the committee and the report of the committee should repre- 
sent neither Smith, Jones nor Brown singly, but all of them 
collectively and be a joint product to which neither would put 
his name singly, but which fairly represents them all as a com- 
mittee. No committee can reach its own modified and com- 
posite and representative conclusions unless it meets in open 
session, with every member present and every member exerting 
his full influence in the free expression of his honest opinion and 
convictions. 

What I have thus far said is, I am satisfied, not only good 
law,, but also good common sense for a people who love the prin- 
ciples of democracy. It were well, if all members of our Amer- 
ican city governments remembered that they were mere private 
citizens when the government itself was not in session, and if all 
legislators understood that when the legislature was not in ses- 
sion, they themselves were mere private citizens. The legisla- 
tive chamber is not the executive officer; and the legislative 
chamber has no existence, save when it is in session, according 
to the laws, or the rules, governing it, with its quorum, ready as 
a body to deliberate and act. This fact is so important that it 
cannot be too strongly stated and emphasized. The board is 
the board, and no one else, nothing else, can take its place. 

The superintendent is elected by the board, and the statutes 
prescribe that he shall be elected annually, excepting in the case 



of a union of towns, supporting one superintendent, in which 
case he may be elected for a period of not more than five years. 
The superintendent is, according to statute, the secretary of the 
school committee; he must attend all meetings, he may speak 
upon the subjects under consideration, but he cannot vote. He 
is the executive officer of the committee. When the committee 
adjourns, there is no committee; its members are all private 
citizens ; but adjournment does not affect the superintendent. 
He is superintendent still. Indeed, he is more of a superintend- 
ent when the committee is not in session. As the committee 
lays aside its powers and prerogatives, the superintendent takes 
them up. He is permanent; he executes what the committee 
has decreed ; he acts for the committee, speaks for the commit- 
tee, represents the committee, when the committee is not in 
session. He is not the committee, for he cannot deliberate and 
decide for the committee. He is not a legislative officer at all; 
he is purely executive. If he exercises his judgment and dis- 
cretion in any matters, it is because by the laws of the State, or 
by the rules, or the votes of the committee he is authorized so 
to do, upon certain specified matters. But he is an executive 
pure and simple, it is his duty to execute the decisions of the 
committee where they have been expressed by duly registered 
votes and entered upon the records. He has no right to take 
directions from any individual member of the committee, presi- 
dent or other person, for an individual member has no right to 
give directions in regard to any matter pertaining to the schools. 
The superintendent has no right to go around to member after 
member of the committee, even if he goes to them all, and 
receive from each one the same reply, and get instructions which 
shall govern his actions. Even all the members of the commit- 
tee individually do not constitute the committee. The committee 
is a committee only when it is in session ; and only when it is in 
session should the superintendent consult the committee and 
seek instructions. 

That the committee is the deliberate body and the superin- 
tendent the executive officer, is made plain in the laws of the 
State. The committee may elect, or appoint the teachers and fix 
their compensation ; but the superintendent employs them. The 
committee determines upon erecting or reconstructing buildings, 



but it may entrust to the superintendent, or to a special commit- 
tee, the power and the duty of carrying out its plans. The com- 
mittee must determine whether the necessity of conveying pupils 
exists, but the superintendent procures conveyance, when it has 
been decided upon. In the supervision of teachers and in the 
treatment of pupils, as to admission, promotion, and discipline, 
the superintendent may have powers conferred upon him by the 
statutes, but it is always in conjunction with the committee. 

It is well for the committee to remember that, if it decides to 
buy so much coal of such a dealer at such a price, yet after all 
it is the superintendent who should do the actual purchasing. 
He is the agent of the board for the performance of all the tasks 
in the sphere of school administration, which the committee may 
decree. The committee is not a business body ; the superintend- 
ent is its business agent. The committee is not an administra- 
tive body, the superintendent is its administrative agent. The 
committee is not elected to do, but to decree. The superintend- 
ent is not appointed to decree, but to do. The committeemen 
are to do something else for their living ; the superintendent is 
to do nothing else for his living. Being on the committee is a 
mere incident with the committeeman; he does not give all his 
time to it. Being superintendent is the one and only thing with 
the superintendent; he should give all his time to it, and have 
no other business concerns or professional cares. 

The committeeman is supposed to be elected because of his 
impartiality in public spirit, and his judicial turn of mind, which 
will enable him to pass sound judgment upon a great variety of 
questions which may arise pertaining to the public schools, ques- 
tions of construction, repairs, sanitation, heating, ventilation, 
fire escapes, health, seating, — questions pertaining to courses of 
study, text-books, matters of discipline, rewards, prizes, diplo- 
mas, exercises; the selection and pay of teachers, janitors,, tru- 
ant officers, prescribing their duties and privileges ; — and a mul- 
titude of important and oftentimes perplexing matters. The 
superintendent is selected because he is regarded as an expert in 
all these matters ; by training and experience he is looked upon 
as having accumulated a mass of technical knowledge concern- 
ing all these important educational subjects, about which even 
the best of the school committeemen may know little or nothing. 



Yet, notwithstanding all his technical knowledge the superin- 
tendent is not put in control of the schools. He is still the agent 
of the committee. He may instruct the committee ; he should ; 
he may impart information ; he should ; he should make recom- 
mendations and bring all of his superior knowledge and expert 
training to the service of the schools and to the assistance of the 
committee, yet he is not to supersede the committee; he is still 
the committee's agent, and must take his orders from the com- 
mittee. But a committee with an intelligent superintendent, if 
itself intelligent, will quickly trust its superintendent and avail 
itself of his technical knowledge and expert qualifications. 
Then will result the ideal situation, — of a committee, broad- 
minded, judicial, public spirited, serving as a deliberate body to 
pass upon questions of school administration, often on recom- 
mendation of the superintendent, always after consultation with 
him, and in harmony with his known wishes ; and a superin- 
tendent, qualified as a real educator both in pedagogical prin- 
ciples and practice, both in the theory and administration of 
schools, whose sole interests are the schools under his charge, 
whose greatest ambition is the welfare and complete develop- 
ment of the children committed to his care, whose judgment is 
impartial, whose zeal is alert, whose character and ideals are 
themselves an inspiration ; and then should follow schools which 
should supplement the best of homes and prepare the children 
of the community for the best of living. 




Copies of this Document will he sent 
on application to 

PAYSON SMITH, 
State Supt. Public Schools 
Augusta, Maine 




.At 



/fa? 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 312 962 



HolU 



